Dean Dabney

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor at Georgia State University

This study explores issues associated with the data commonly used in homicide clearance research. Data collected from 2009 to 2011 case files ( n = 252) were reviewed during interviews with investigators ( n = 29). The multifaceted data collection approach produced a more comprehensive dataset than was available based solely upon case file reviews,...

With the growth of qualitative research within the fields of criminology and criminal justice (CCJ) it is important to examine discipline standards and expectations of how to collect and analyze qualitative data and to present research findings. Our aim here is to assess qualitative research published in 17 top CCJ journals during the period of 201...

Homicide investigation is among the most prestigious and challenging undertakings in modern day law enforcement agencies. Most metropolitan police departments assign the investigation of suspicious deaths to a dedicated homicide unit staffed by an elite group of specially trained and highly competent investigators. These units are commonly associat...

Cambridge Core - Sociology of Race and Ethnicity - Appearance Bias and Crime - edited by Bonnie Berry

In the aftermath of a murder, homicide detectives and the loved ones of slain victims have no choice but to interact with one another over a lengthy period of time. These relationships are among the most mutually unwelcome and emotionally challenging that beset the criminal justice system. Drawing upon interviews with homicide detectives and homici...

To advance our understanding of the factors that predict homicide investigation outcomes, this study systematizes measures into five substantive domains of inquiry (involved subjects, incident circumstances, case dynamics, ecological characteristics, and investigator factors), drawing attention to the significance of each block as a possible concep...

This chapter contains an edited transcript of a conversation between the two authors that took place in November of 2017. It provides first person insights into the trials and tribulations that we faced while conducting ethnographic fieldwork within the homicide units of two police organizations. We focus specific attention on topics such as prepar...

To date, the main lines of inquiry on the topic of policing bias have relied upon the operationalization of simple interracial/ethnic distinctions to determine if Black or Brown citizens receive disproportionately harsh treatment compared to Whites in a jurisdiction. Failing that, ecological models have been applied, built around the notion of terr...

This article analyses the history of bail in the United States in an effort to situate this institution within the general narrative of criminal justice transformation during the 19th and 20th Centuries. We identify core characteristics of American bail (commercialisation, risk assessment, and community supervision) that developed relatively early...

This study used a qualitative design to investigate police officer decision-making processes within the context of the focal concerns framework. A sample of 25 metropolitan police officers were interviewed to explore how the constructs of blameworthiness, protecting the community, and practical considerations manifest themselves in a policing conte...

Confidential informants have long occupied central role in the criminal investigation efforts of law enforcement authorities. Yet, there exists minimal contemporary scholarship to help illuminate the complex relationships and roles associated with covert intelligence gathering. This book draws upon a rich array of fieldwork and face-to-face intervi...

This chapter examines the state of knowledge regarding law enforcement and confidential informants. The bulk of the previous literature has taken either a very practical, hands-on, how-to approach written by practitioners or a very legalistic perspective focusing on the ways that informant use fits (or does not fit) within legal structures. Additio...

Chapter 2 presents the methods of the current study. Three fieldwork projects in two cities are explained, including one researcher’s embeddedness with a plain-clothes, street crime unit, one researcher’s 10 month inclusion with a narcotics investigation unit, and one author’s 18 months of participant observation with a major city’s homicide invest...

Chapter 5 examines a different perspective on the use of informants, highlighting their use in narcotics investigations. With a focus on how different types of community members do and do not interact (and cooperate) with law enforcement officials the role of informants is brought central. By examining the beliefs and attitudes of policing official...

Chapter 7 explicitly identifies the benefits that are derived by both law enforcement in general and individual law enforcement officers. In addition to the obvious benefit of gaining information to facilitate the control/resolution of crime, so too are there benefits in the form of providing law enforcement agencies and agents with a deeper unders...

Chapter four highlights the actual ways that law enforcement officers work with confidential informants. Here the processes by which informants are identified and recruited are discussed, including a stage model for conceptualizing the process. The means by which officials communicate with potential informants is addressed, especially how indenture...

This chapter introduces a typology of confidential informants. Through assessing the motivation/reason that informants become such and whether law enforcement adopts a passive or active role in soliciting information from such person we construct a four category typology of confidential informants. By examining whether informants are coerced or vol...

Chapter 8 contrasts the content of Chapter 7 with a focus on the pitfalls and potential problems involved in law enforcement officials working with confidential informants. The problems and pitfalls of working with confidential informants are classified as personal, professional, and individualized issues. Personal pitfalls include the intrusion of...

The actual activities, strategies, and processes of how law enforcement officials work with and manage confidential informants is explicated in this chapter. Here the processes of working within (and around) bureaucratic requirements for establishing and maintaining a relationship with an informant is examined. So too are the many ways that relatio...

The concluding chapter summarizes the key take away messages emanating from the ethnographic work that underlies the book. A series of theoretical considerations are detailed, including an effort to establish a broader context associated with the book’s 4-part typology of the police-citizen information exchange, the observation that informant work...

Drawing upon ethnographic data from one US metropolitan police department’s homicide unit, this study employs Goffman’s frame analysis to explore two questions: (1) What types of cases are prioritized in homicide investigations? and (2) How are those prioritizations operationalized and justified? Themes within the data suggest that although detecti...

Existing research on stress among police assumes the presence of uniform stressors across job roles and borrows upon generic stress instruments to tap stress types and levels. The present study draws upon interviews with 26 members of a metropolitan homicide unit to provide an inductive vantage point on stress perceptions within a specialized area...

A longstanding debate in criminology and criminal justice has focused on whether white-collar offenders are sentenced more leniently than other types of offenders. This study uses a sample of approximately 1,200 adjudicated offenders who were employed in various types of health care professions at the time of their offenses—including both high-stat...

In this article, we argue that the history of bail foretells the future of parole. Under a plan called the Conditional Post-Conviction Release Bond Act (recently passed into law in three states), US prisoners can secure early release only after posting ‘post-conviction bail’. As with pre-trial bail, the fledgling model would require prisoners to pa...

The relationship between religiosity and crime has been the subject of much empirical debate and testing over the past 40 years. Some investigators have argued that observed relationships between religion and crime may be spurious because of self-control, arousal, or social control factors. The present study offers the first investigation of religi...

The prison economy provides an outlet for inmates to secure goods and services not formally available to them while incarcerated. While having access is beneficial, participation in the economy may increase people's chances of being victimized. The current study seeks to elaborate on the linkages between participation in the prison economy and viol...

Like their news program predecessors, many political talk shows focus a considerable amount of their coverage on justice issues. Although numerous past studies have examined justice issue presentation in news programs, infotainment, and crime drama, to date only one forthcoming study has examined crime and justice coverage on political talk shows....

Most criminologists would agree that the discipline favors quantitative methodologies over qualitative ones. The present study seeks to revisit and expand past assessments on the prominence of qualitative research appearing in criminology and criminal justice (CCJ) publication outlets. Our inquiry is divided into two parts. First we consider the fr...

The relationship between religiosity and crime has been the subject of much empirical debate and testing over the past 40 years. Some investigators have argued that observed relationships between religion and crime may be spurious because of self-control, arousal, or social control factors. The present study offers the first investigation of religi...

Alumni studies use past graduates of educational programs or institutions to address various types of research aims. While alumni research is common in disciplines such as business, psychology, nursing, and social work, few criminal justice alumni studies have been published in the academic literature. This article reviews the types of alumni studi...

Much has been written about the design, implementation, and crime-related outcomes of the Compstat model of policing. However, there exists a paucity of literature investigating the operational realities of this approach. Drawing on 350 hours of ethnographic work conducted in a single geographic command within a metropolitan police department, this...

Much debate centers on the use of offender profiling as a technique to differentiate criminals from law-abiding citizens. Profiling advocates argue that it is appropriate to reference past experiences and information about known offenders to identify behavioral and demographic correlates that can then be applied to a given population of offenses or...

Freshmen Learning Communities (FLCs) or Freshmen Interest Groups (FIGs) recently emerged on the landscape of higher education as an innovative means of improving educational outcomes. Building around a cohort‐based pedagogical model, FLCs use thematic foci, block scheduling, and faculty collaboration to ease the transition into the first‐year colle...

Large numbers of correctional institutions rely on volunteers to assist staff in various programs and tasks. At present there exists a paucity of literature describing these programs and/or subjecting them to systematic evaluation. The present study uses self-report data from a sample of active volunteers at a medium-security Southern prison to pro...

Shoplifting is one of the most common and costly crimes, yet little data exist to determine reliably characteristics of the typical shoplifter or the modus operandi of the crime. It is a crime that has most often been studied using official, secondary data provided by either retail security personnel or law enforcement officers. Reliability issues...

In-depth interviews with 50 recovering, drug-addicted pharmacists reveal two distinct paths of entry into drug use. One group (N = 23), termed “recreational abusers,” was drawn into the euphoric effects of prescription drugs. The other group (N = 27), termed “therapeutic self-medicators,” began using prescription drugs for medicinal reasons. These...

A “medical model” ideology dominates the study of drug abuse among health care professionals. This perspective defines and approaches drug abuse as a disease. While this disease is said to have bio-psycho-social origins, scholars have principally focused on possible biological and psychological factors that produce a “predisposition” to drug abuse....

To determine the temporal and descriptive aspects of pharmacists' decision-making processes regarding illegal use of mind-altering or potentially addictive prescription drugs (PAPDs) and to measure the effects of social factors associated with being and becoming a pharmacist on pharmacists' decisions to use PAPDs illegally. One-time, written, maile...

Previous research has questioned the clinical qualifications and professional competence of physicians who work in correctional facilities. This article further explores these issues by analyzing social control mechanisms that are employed against prison and jail physicians who (a) have been sued in state court by prisoners for medical malfeasance...

This paper uses self-report data from the 1993 National Shopping Center Security Survey to examine the growing problem of crime at shopping centers located in the United States. Security managers from 369 shopping centers provided data on crime incidents, private security measures, and numerous shopping center demographic measures. Data are analyze...

On average, pharmacists spend six years in college studying the intricacies of prescription medicines and their effects on the human body. Upon graduation, they embark on a career where their expertise and familiarity with the proper use and dangers of prescription drugs continuously grows. Despite this wealth of experience, some pharmacists become...

Using a national survey of self-reported shopping centre crime, this study examines how one of the most commonly reported shopping centre offences, namely, motor vehicle theft, is associated with the three critical elements of the 'routine activities' approach to crime distribution. As expected, the presence of motivated offenders and the absence o...

This research examines the characteristics, consequences, and potential factors impacting the prevalence of prescription fraud committed by pharmacy employees. Using standard thematic content analysis, 292 cases prosecuted by Medicaid Fraud Control Units throughout the nation are analyzed. Preliminary results reveal that certain kinds of fraud (gen...

This analysis traces the evolution of the pharmacy profession's reaction to problematic drug and/or alcohol use among its members. Historical events, scholarly literature, and the prevailing attitudes and perceptions of the pharmacy profession's governing bodies are drawn upon to illustrate how the profession has come to adopt a medical model orien...

This article focuses on the phenomenon of on‐the‐job deviance among nurses. Deviant behaviors such as supply theft, drug theft, drug use, and procedural shortcuts are addressed from a theoretical perspective that incorporates components of differential association, social learning, and techniques of neutralization theories. Interview data from 25 r...

This analysis attempts to integrate sociological and nursing perspectives regarding on-the-job drug theft and/or use by nurses. Specifically, it uses interview data, collected from 25 practicing nurses, to illustrate the link between work group norms and these forms of nursing deviance. These data suggest that informal work group norms often differ...